What? You’ve never read The Phantom Tollbooth, one of the great under-appreciated classics of 20th century children’s literature? Well, if we are going to be friends, you better go grab a copy and start now!

This quote, about Milo’s sojourn through the Doldrums, sums up the middle-ish part of treatment for me. I realise there may be other people out there taking a different path, but this is MY blog, so you get to read about MY feelings.

I’m a little over a third of the way through my 24 week treatment for Hepatitis C with AbbVIe’s Viekira Pak.

It’s all normal routine treatment here. After the roller coaster of the first month it’s quite a relief to be not poring over my blood test results with a fine tooth comb. Sure, there are weird results from time to time, but nothing so bad that they have asked me to come back to Sydney, unlike the Great Bilirubin Scare of 15.

All I’m waiting for now is to see if I go UND this time round. My viral load was slow to drop from Week 2 to Week 4 (45 to 40, from a starting point of 342,600). Who knows what it will be this time round? I take heart in the knowledge that all my liver markers are now in normal range. I know of people taking Harvoni who have not gone UND all the way through, but cleared after treatment. I don’t know what will happen to me and there’s not much use hypothesising. I hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

That’s the only niggle at the back of my mind right now.

Apart from that, it’s onwards ever onwards for the next month.

PS: Bonus points and a koala sticker for the person who identify where the title comes from!